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    • 10 thoughts from the Colts on a 29-27 season opener loss
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    10 thoughts from the Colts on a 29-27 season opener loss

    Vaseline Posted on

    INDIANAPOLIS — Ten thoughts on the Colts’ 29-27 loss to the Texans in the season opener at Lucas Oil Stadium:

    1. Another opener without a win. It’s happened every year since 2013, and this time it happened in ways that were predictable (secondary struggles) and in ways that weren’t (run defense issues, offensive line woes).

    We got plenty to digest about the starting quarterback, who started for the first time in almost a calendar year; a pass rush that looks versatile, creative and fun; a secondary that is even thinner than I imagined at the start of the season; and much more.

    How did Anthony Richardson play in the season opener?

    2. This was the complete Anthony Richardson experience.

    We saw some smooth runs, both on designed sweeps to force good tackling by smaller defenders who often missed and on scrambles when the Texans covered his receivers. His fourth-down touchdown scramble through multiple defenders was simply masterful.

    We saw the absurd arm talent on the 60-yard post bomb to Alec Pierce, with Richardson slipping on his drop-back, recovering and throwing a perfect rainbow into the end zone with his back foot.

    We saw the inconsistent accuracy when he sent a touchdown to Adonai Mitchell in the red zone.

    And we saw the risky decisions he made, like when he forced a pass up the middle late in the game and was lucky that a linebacker dropped the pass.

    Anthony Richardson Statistics

    3. Richardson completed 9 of 19 passes for 212 yards, 2 touchdowns, 1 interception and a 101.2 rating. It was as mixed a pattern as that line suggests.

    This is a rollercoaster, and more of a wooden one with some wobbly moments than the steel ones where you just ride for fun. The important thing is that he came out healthy, despite some nasty hits on sacks and designed runs. He created enough to be excited about and plenty to correct with coaches in the lab.

    It’s notable that he’s the youngest starting quarterback in the NFL for the second year in a row. This was his 18thand start in high school. So prepare for chaos. But that’s more fun than stopgap solutions that can’t create explosive plays or offer hope for the future, right?

    4. The most intriguing part of this matchup for me was seeing Anthony Richardson paired up in the run game with Jonathan Taylor in a scheme that Shane Steichen hid all preseason. The two didn’t catch a single handoff last season, but they present one of the most physically imposing backfields the league has ever seen, featuring two players who weigh at least 225 pounds and can run a 40-yard dash in under 4.4 seconds.

    I have to say it was disappointing, not because of those two, but because of how little movement the offensive line got, especially for Taylor. I thought Taylor made some smart and decisive cuts and starts and stops to create space where there wasn’t any, and he still ended up with 14 carries for 45 yards and a 3.2 yard average.

    The Colts found some explosiveness in their passing game after that run attention. They just never got into their run game and they trailed far too long.

    5. The entire Colts plan was something of a mystery, and that was intentional. The Colts didn’t want to show their cards this preseason, and they never got a chance to plan for a healthy and conditioned Richardson and Taylor, and the Richardson they had last season was the rookie they wanted to isolate and put in easy-to-manage situations.

    The game script was about setting the tone with the Richardson-Taylor read-option play and building explosive shots off of that.

    The 60-yard touchdown to Pierce was a great example of this tempo. Steichen responded to a script that was primarily focused on running early on by bringing in Ashton Dulin and Drew Ogletree as obvious run players. They were tasked with pulling the safety into the box, freezing the defensive backs with the play fake, and counting on Pierce to toast the cornerback on his favorite route.

    Texans run game dominates Colts

    6. One thing I didn’t expect at all in this game was the Texans going wild on the Colts. They amassed 212 yards on 5.3 yards per carry, and they did it by running Joe Mixon up the middle and off the edges, by generating reverses, by having Stroud scramble. They did whatever they wanted.

    I think the Colts rotated too much up front, putting players like Taven Bryan on the field who aren’t equipped to play the run. It also didn’t let their players get into a flow, and the Texans offensive line handled them on downhill runs, and they just couldn’t recover.

    That has to change, because if Chris Ballard is only going to invest in the defensive line this off-season, then the weak point cannot be the one that causes the team to be behind for most of the game.

    How did Laiatu Latu play in his debut for the Colts?

    7. I was fascinated to see how Laiatu Latu would fare in his first NFL game after a training camp and preseason in which he immediately and consistently looked like he belonged. But real-world games are always different and the challenge was enormous, literally, against the 313-pound, four-time Pro Bowl left tackle Laremy Tunsil.

    His assignment on his debut was mainly to rush to 3rd-and-6 or more, with Tyquan Lewis starting and looking good against the run and the pass. Latu forced Tunsil into two false starts on third downs and also beat him for a pressure on his first official rush.

    I wonder if this is a building process for him, where they use him more and more as the season progresses.

    8. The inactive player report was interesting this week, as the Colts decided to make Blake Freeland and Dallis Flowers healthy scratches. Both had really rough preseasons, but the Colts failed to add depth at those two premium positions. It made it so that an injury today could have left some young players at some really compromised positions.

    That injury didn’t happen, but the Colts still could have used another outside cornerback option when the Texans went with Jaylon Jones. It’s an inherently unstable position, and trust can ebb and flow, and after Jones gave up a wide-open completion after the Colts pass rush washed out C.J. Stroud on third down, he came back a few plays later to call an illegal contact penalty to negate Kenny Moore II’s pick. That’s a panic play.

    If Flowers is physically unable to play with his recovering Achilles tendon (and it appears he isn’t), someone else needs to be there to protect these young cornerbacks from themselves.

    9. My interpretation of this is that the Colts coaches saw what we’ve been saying here this preseason: Flowers and Freeland don’t seem physically up to par at this level right now. It’s just odd that they went with that assessment and didn’t add anyone else on waivers, even though they did pursue a special teamer in Samuel Womack and released a veteran outside cornerback in Darrell Baker Jr. to do so.

    This is a situation to watch all season long. The Colts have 16 games left and the chances of never having an injury at two tackle positions and two outside cornerback positions are dreamy.

    10. That end of the first half was one of the most embarrassing ref moments I can remember. They initially called it a Dalton Schultz catch when he dropped the ball on the way down, but when they reviewed it, the spike the Texans were awarded to preserve a field goal attempt was overturned. After they botched the clock, they reset it to 5 seconds and restarted the clock seemingly at random, and Houston didn’t get a playoff berth.

    Considering the way Ka’imi Fairbairn connected on 50-plus kicks, the sequence saved three points for the Colts. And it was just one example of how rusty and lopsided Week 1 is, even for the officials.

    See you next week from Green Bay, a suddenly important game for the Colts to avoid an 0-2 start.

    Contact Nate Atkins at [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter @NateAtkins_.

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